Wendy Johnson
Wendy has been practicing Zen meditation for 40 years as a lay student of the dharma and an engaged environmental activist. Married for 35 years and the mother of two young adult children, Wendy began her Zen training in 1971 with Soen Nakagawa roshi in Jerusalem, Israel. From 1973 until 2000 she lived and practiced as a resident member of the San Francisco Zen Center, training at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center from 1973-1975 and at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center for the next 25 years, helping to establish the Organic Farm and Garden program at Green Gulch. At SFZC Wendy received Lay Initiation from Zentatsu Richard Baker in 1976 and Lay Entrustment from Eijun Linda Cutts in 2006. She has also trained closely with Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. As a lay ordained member of the Order of Interbeing (1990), Wendy received Transmission of the Lamp teaching authorization from Thich Nhat Hanh in 1992. Since then she has led engaged mindfulness retreats in the tradition of TNH with Zen teacher Therese Fitzgerald of Dharma Friends . Wendy also leads yearly retreats, sittings, and trainings for environmental activists, family practitioners, veterans and peacemakers.
Wendy is the author of Gardening at the Dragon's Gate, an SFZC book published by Bantam in 2008. She is a 13-year columnist for Tricycle magazine and helps to lead writing and Zen retreats with lay Zen practitioner and author Natalie Goldberg. Wendy is a mentor to the Edible Schoolyard Program of the Chez Panisse Foundation and a founding instructor of Organic Agriculture at the Indian Valley campus of the College of Marin.